


Family

by fauxtales



Series: Becoming Human Again [10]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Emphasis on the comfort part, Family Bonding, Family cooking time, Fluff, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Recovery, Teasing, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Xion and Roxas are obnoxious teengers and you can pry that from my cold dead hands, implied PTSD, of the non-romantic kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29548680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxtales/pseuds/fauxtales
Summary: For all their faults and difficulties, they are a family now. Maybe there are some tensions left over from before, some hurdles they have yet to get over, but that’s okay. All families have difficulties like that.
Relationships: Isa & Lea & Roxas & Xion (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Becoming Human Again [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890835
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	Family

“I need a hug. A six hour one.”

That is the only warning Isa gets before Lea is flopping down on top of him. Isa has just enough time to raise his book out of the way above his head before it is crushed under the mass of red spikes that lands on his chest. 

The lanky redhead has just gotten home from a trip to Radiant Garden for some Keyblade business and is apparently tired. The way he goes completely boneless on top of Isa, arms moving only to dig their way under Isa’s back, is a clear indication that things likely didn’t go all that well. Or maybe they did. One never knows with these things what can really be considered “going well.”

Isa's laugh is soft and fond. “That bad, huh,” he murmurs. He sets his book aside on the back of the couch so he can carefully thread his fingers through Lea’s hair. He catches on a tangle almost immediately and sets about carefully detangling it.

“Yeah, I guess,” Lea huffs into Isa’s chest. He shifts some, getting their legs tangled together in the process of getting comfortable, and buries his face more firmly in Isa’s shirt. “Ten-some odd years and Even is still the most insufferable person to exist. But now I just feel guilty when I look at him, so I can’t even get properly annoyed.”

Ah. Of course. Of everything that happened while they were in the Organization, Axel’s assassination of his coworkers is one of the things that weighs the most heavily on Lea’s conscience. He took them out in cold blood after all, and from what Isa has heard of the event, it wasn’t exactly merciful. For being a being of flames, Axel always was so very cold.

“I didn’t realize Even would be at this meeting,” Isa says, still gently working the knots out of Lea’s hair. It’s becoming clear that the tangles are from Lea’s repeated nervous mussing of his hair, a habit that has only gotten worse in the past few months. Perhaps that is alright though; it’s replaced Lea’s need to chew at his nails until his fingers bleed, at least. For the most part, anyway. “I would have gone with you.”

“Neither did I,” Lea scoffs, tilting his head so he can look up at Isa through his hair. “I don’t think he had even planned to be, actually, but… I don’t know, I guess hearing the data directly from him is likely better than getting it secondhand through someone who doesn’t really understand it.” Lea laughs softly, propping his chin up on Isa’s chest. “Riku is trying his best, but he’s still new to this whole ‘being in charge’ thing. I think he would much prefer to just step back and let the King handle everything.”

“Maybe I should come give him some pointers,” Isa jokes. Lea smiles, his laugh more genuine this time. Isa can’t help his own fond smile as he leans forward to press a kiss to Lea’s forehead.

“We both know that putting you in charge is a bad idea,” Lea says, reaching a hand up to cup Isa’s face. “I love you babe, but the power just goes to your head.”

“I think I’ve gotten very good at letting things go, thank you very much.”

The tension in Lea’s shoulders has gone. As they talk and joke about their problems, Isa finds himself calmer than he ever thought he would be. It strikes him in that moment just how far they have come. At one point in time, merely mentioning Isa’s control issues was likely to set him off on a spiral of guilt and self-hatred that he would struggle to recover from. Lea is tired after spending a day in the same room as Even, but once upon a time he couldn’t have lasted through the meeting; he would have had to leave five minutes in and would be a wreck when he got home. And certainly, there are still days when that happens. There are still days when neither of them can handle the memories and the pain that still lingers between them, between all of them. There are still days when Isa barely gets out of bed or Lea obsessively cleans the entire apartment in an attempt to wash away the shadows and the nothingness. There are still bad days, and there always will be.

But now, in this moment, they can joke about it. Isa can make a joke about how good he was at being in charge as Saïx and he doesn’t feel like he’s going to throw up. Lea can spend a day in the same room as other ex-Organization members and not immediately have a mental breakdown when he gets home. They’ve come so far.

Isa forgets about his book. They stay like that, sprawled out on the couch and lost in each other’s company and conversation, the gentle light of late afternoon giving way to the calm of evening. Isa works all of the tangles from Lea’s hair and moves on to trying to press the knots out of his shoulders - a decidedly more difficult task.

“You hold so much tension in your shoulders, you know that?” Isa asks, digging his thumb into Lea’s shoulder blade. Lea goans softly, hiding his face in Isa’s chest again. “It can’t be good for you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Lea mutters. He takes a deep breath and Isa feels him purposely trying to relax his muscles. He’s not sure how well that works, considering how tense Lea still feels under his fingertips, but at least he’s trying. “Maybe I should take up yoga.”

“Yoga?”

“Yeah, yoga. Y'know, stretching?” Lea shifts to be able to look up at Isa again. “I learned about it from Kairi. I don’t know how common it is on other worlds, but I guess it’s a thing on Destiny Islands. There’s all these set poses and stuff, and it’s good for your body. She started teaching me some. Y'know, during training. Before.”

“Right,” Isa breathes. He always forgets how close Lea and Kairi got during their training. It’s still an odd thing to think about, considering how they met. Then again, most of the people Lea and Isa know these days didn’t meet them on the best of terms. It’s not all that surprising, when he thinks about it.

From the other side of the house, Isa hears the door open and close. It’s followed by the sound of shoes and skateboards being dropped on the floor, along with a small chorus of voices: “We’re home!” “You better have pants on, or I’m going to have to leave again!”

“That was one time!” Lea calls back. The sound of Xion’s giggles drifts through the house and Isa can practically hear Roxas rolling his eyes.

“One time too many!”

With the teenagers back in the house, the quiet peace of the evening is shattered. Isa can’t say he minds all that much, however. Even this chaos is its own sort of peace and Isa doesn’t do well with quiet these days anyway. Xion appears, leaning over the back of the couch and smiling down at Isa and Lea sprawled out on it. Isa can just make out the spikey blond of Roxas’s hair as he walks past toward the bedrooms.

“Aww, you two are cute,” Xion grins. Isa can feel his face heating up slightly, still unused to people commenting on his relationship with Lea. Lea’s response however is to press a kiss to Isa’s neck and cuddle closer, further trapping him on the couch and under Xion’s sharp gaze.

“Aren’t we?” Lea coos. Isa could strangle him. “We’re just the cutest goddamn couple you’ve ever seen in your life!”

“More like the most annoying,” Roxas calls from the hallway. Lea blows a raspberry in his direction while Xion laughs. “You’re so obnoxiously in love that it’s painful to watch. Some of us don’t want to see that shit, you know.”

“Watch your mouth!” Lea mock gasps, scrambling to sit up so he can cover Xion’s ears. He elbows Isa in the process, eliciting a small gasp. “There is a lady in the house!”

“She has the worst mouth out of all of us,” Roxas points out. 

“You’re fucking right I do, bitch,” Xion chirps happily.

Lea gasps again, this time bringing his hand dramatically to his forehead as he fake swoons. “I can’t believe the people in this house! I thought we raised you better than that.” Lea flops back down onto Isa’s chest dramatically. Isa sighs. “Our children have become so foul, Isa. Whatever shall we do?”

Isa makes a face of deadpan irritation and glances at Xion. She covers her mouth to hold back her laughter, and Isa even catches Roxas’s lips tugging up a bit in amusement.

“With a guardian like you, could we really expect better?” The snort this comment earns from Xion is worth the offended smack Lea gives to Isa’s chest. Despite Xion being one of the first to forgive Isa for the things he did as Saix, he still feels a lot of guilt around his actions and attitude toward her when they were Nobodies. Roxas has a much harder shell to crack, but Isa has made it his goal to make Xion smile at least once a day. Getting a laugh out of her is even better.

Maybe he really is worthy of her forgiveness.

“You’re so mean to me!” Lea whines. Isa notes with some amusement that he’s still not moving away; in fact, he’s only clinging to Isa tighter now. “All three of you are bullies! I can’t believe I was going to make dinner for you tonight. Have fun getting your own food!”

Isa smiles fondly down at Lea, while Xion and Roxas begin to complain about the prospect of having to cook for themselves. Xion is actually a pretty good cook, but she doesn’t like to be in the kitchen alone. Meanwhile, Roxas should never be trusted with the stove, and probably not a knife either, though chopping things does tend to be his job. He merely enjoys it a tad too much for Isa to really consider it safe. Of all of them, Lea is the best cook. Maybe it’s the inherent connection he has to fire; Isa isn’t really sure. But it doesn’t matter. Cooking meals often ends up being a family affair and Isa is personally quite fond of that fact.

When the complaints begin to quiet down, Isa tugs at a bit of Lea’s hair to get his attention. “What did you pick up for dinner? You went to the store yesterday for it, right?”

Lea blinks up at Isa for a moment. Then he smiles, the expression soft and fond. “I got stuff for stir fry. Xion was saying she wanted it the other day, so-”

“Stir fry?!” Xion cuts in, leaning low over the back of the couch to invade Lea and Isa’s comfortable bubble. “Forget every bad name I just called you, Lea! You have to make dinner tonight!”

Lea pouts up at Xion. There’s a mischievous glint in his eye that Isa knows well. “And what will I get out of it?”

Xion pulls back, frowning. She casts around the room, looking for some sort of incentive to convince Lea to cook dinner. Lea’s stir fry has always been one of her favorite meals. “Um… well…” Xion’s eyes light up as she has an idea and she leans over the back of the couch again. “I’ll make you some more of that facial scrub from last month.”

“I suppose…” Lea says, making a show of thinking it over. Roxas rolls his eyes in the background, trying to pretend he isn’t having just as much fun as the rest of them with this. “Yeah, that’ll do,” Lea decides. He finally sits up again, this time fully climbing off of Isa to let him up as he stands. Isa sits up as well, running a hand through his hair to fix the slight mess that has become of it from lying on the couch for so long. He sees Roxas turning to go and hurries to add:

“How about we cook dinner together?” Isa wishes his voice wouldn’t shake quite so much. This isn’t even an odd thing to suggest; it happens more often than not. But it’s usually Lea roping the other two into helping him, an unspoken routine of sorts that they all expect and accept. Isa has never suggested it, certainly not as if it was a family bonding moment of sorts, and somehow asking for that closeness is difficult for him.

Or maybe just asking Roxas to stay and interact with him is hard. He has directed the question to Roxas after all, the unspoken part of it a hope that Roxas will stay. Not because Lea told him to chop vegetables, though with stir fry that will certainly be a main job, but because they want to spend time together. Together, as this weird sort of family that they have managed to build.

Isa had a family, once. A long time ago. Then he became Saïx and that family was ripped away to be replaced by the Organization, a group of people that could hardly be considered a “family,” but was the closest Saïx had. He knows Axel thought of it that way too; it’s why going to see the ones whose deaths he is directly responsible for is so difficult for Lea. It’s why they both cling so desperately to each other, and in Lea’s case, to Roxas and Xion. Isa has started to cling to those two as well, but Roxas still keeps him at arm’s length. It’s for good reason. Isa doesn’t blame him.

He just wishes they could get closer anyway.

Roxas is staring at him, expression unreadable. Isa doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but he can feel those bright blue eyes boring into him, searching. Lea is staring at him too, brow furrowed and concern etched on his face, but Isa doesn’t look over at him. He holds Roxas’s gaze steady and wills his hands to stop shaking.

Finally, Roxas takes a breath and looks away. “I don’t see how Lea could possibly cut up everything by himself. He sucks with the knife.”

The shaky breath that leaves Isa is one of relief. Roxas accepted him, at least for the moment, and that acceptance makes Isa feel warm all over. Lea reaches down to give Isa’s shoulder a squeeze, his smile soft and reassuring before he turns to head into the kitchen. “I do not! Just because I don’t cut things with reckless abandon doesn’t mean I have no knife skills!”

As Lea and Roxas head into the kitchen to start prepping dinner, Xion hangs back. She watches Isa, the deep blue of her eyes wise beyond her years - so like Naminé always was, knowing more than she possibly could - as she moves to hang over the back of the couch. Her voice is quiet as she speaks. “He doesn’t hate you, you know. He actually respects you quite a bit, he just… struggles.”

“I know,” Isa says, his own voice just as low as Xion’s. It’s an unnecessary precaution; anyone in the house that might hear them is too busy making a racket in the kitchen. “I don’t expect him to forgive me at all, let alone any time soon. I just…” Isa sighs, staring down at his hands. His voice gets even quieter, somehow embarrassed to be admitting to this outloud. “I haven’t had a family in so long. And now… I’ve started to think of the three of you as… It’s selfish, but I just want to be able to spend time with my family, that’s all.”

Isa can feel heat on his face as he lets anything else he might say remain trapped in his chest. He doesn’t know how to explain the care that has slowly grown for the two teenagers in his chest, planted there by Lea’s own fondness of them but then nurtured by Isa himself as he tries to regain what it feels like to care. What it feels like to be human. It has helped him more than anything else, this opportunity to care about others - and to take care of them as well, teaching them what it’s like to live in the world rather than merely as tools for a cult. It’s something Isa himself has been learning too, but he at least had memories of being a Somebody; Roxas and Xion barely even have that. Being able to help them through this, help them find a healthier normal, has been more than he could ever ask for.

Xion’s arms wrapping around Isa’s shoulders pull him from his thoughts. She hugs him tightly, her face half buried in his hair in the process. Isa lays his hand on Xion’s arm, leaning his head against hers as she mumbles into his shoulder. “Of course. We’re all family now, and we all want to spend time with you too, Isa. Even Roxas.” She pulls back, grinning crookedly. “Even if he is a prickly little shit about it.”

That pulls a laugh from Isa. He gives Xion’s arm a small, grateful squeeze; she squeezes his shoulders back before letting him go. “Thank you, Xion.”

“I’ll always be here to help cheer up my moon dad!” Xion says, ruffling Isa’s hair a bit. “Now c’mon. We better check that those two aren’t getting too carried away or we’ll be eating nothing but stir fry for a week.”

“I’ll be right there,” Isa says, letting Xion drift into the kitchen without him. He can hear her raised voice as she strains to be heard over the chattering and whatever loud music Lea and Roxas have put on. For a moment, Isa just lets the sounds of life filtering through the house wash over him, basking in it. He feels warm. Then he gets up and heads to the kitchen to help, pausing in the doorway for only a moment to take in the scene before stepping inside to join.

Roxas has the biggest knife they own in his hand as he chops up vegetables and pours them into separate bowls for Lea’s use. He gestures with the knife occasionally as he talks, the scowl that Isa is so used to seeing on his face gone, replaced with a teasing grin as he makes fun of Lea. Xion has been set up next to Roxas, cutting up the smaller things and separating them out into bowls. Her smile mirrors Roxas’s, similar enough to remind Isa of their shared connection; they look like siblings, possibly even twins, their movements and motions so similar, their laughs nearly identical.

And then there is Lea. He flits about the kitchen, pulling out ingredients and getting pans set on the stove. He moves about the space with complete confidence, his movements perfectly in sync with Roxas and Xion’s own to avoid colliding with either of them. Isa is struck by how fitting his title had been as a Nobody: the Flurry of Dancing Flames. Even with his hair pulled back out of his face and a well used apron tied around his front, the moniker fits. Lea catches sight of Isa hesitating in the doorway and smiles and Isa thinks he could melt right here and be perfectly content.

“Come get the rice cooker started, would you?” Lea calls. He holds out a hair tie for Isa and kisses his cheek as he takes it. “Thanks, babe.”

“No problem, hon,” Isa says as he pulls his hair back into a low ponytail. He ignores the obnoxious gagging sounds coming from the teenagers as he sets up the rice cooker, a small smile on his face.

For all their faults and difficulties, they are a family now. Maybe there are some tensions left over from before, some hurdles they have yet to get over, but that’s okay. All families have difficulties like that. Even Lea’s difficulties with Even and Ienzo are the same, in a way. Extended family, that’s what they are. The ones that, for the moment, are only seen under special occasions, but that’s okay.

During a lull in his constant moving, Lea pauses next to Isa. He wraps an arm around Isa’s waist, pulls him close, and kisses his cheek. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to. Isa smiles and returns the kiss to Lea’s lips instead and they stay like that, wrapped up in each other’s company and the sound of Xion and Roxas singing along to the radio.

They’re going to be okay. They may have a long way to go, but they’re a family now, and they can get through any difficulty that may face them in the future.

Together.


End file.
